Zork turns thirty this year, and Malinche Entertainment is celebrating by declaring June the Month of Zork. Ok, so we found out about it kinda late, but there’s still time left do some Underground Empire-style partying.
Malinche has a nicely rounded tribute up to the masterpiece of interactive fiction, including a history of Zork‘s development, some great pictures from Zork history (including the hilarious art on the first manual), and a contest giving away some Zork swag.
Click here to play the original Zork in your browser. If you’re not familiar with text adventures, it might take you a while to get used to particular quirks of the game interface, which requires you to type in your commands in very specific ways. Here are some tips:
- To get a general idea of what’s in the room with you, type “look.” Even better, when you get started, type “verbose.” This will ensure that every time you enter an area, you’ll get a full description of what’s there, so that you don’t have keep “look”ing around.
- “Look”ing won’t always tell you everything you need to know, however. “Examine” gives a more detailed description of objects and locations. Examine everything you possibly can. “Take” everything that isn’t nailed down. (Follow up tip: if there are many items in a room, you can simply type “take all” and spare yourself the hassle of issuing the same command several times.)
- To wait, type “z”. To repeat a command, type “again.” To be reminded of what you’re carrying, type “i” for Inventory.
- When inputting a command, it sometimes helps to imagine you’re trying to speak a foreign language that you don’t know very well. The trick is to communicate your core idea in the simplest way possible. Flip switch. Open door. Examine bucket of mayonnaise.
- If you get stuck (and you will) try everything you can possibly think of, no matter how stupid.
Oh, one last thing. Don’t stay in the dark too long. You’ll find out why.
Celebrating 30 Years of Zork [Malinche Entertainment, via Just Adventure]